The latest and nearly complete results showed Boakai leading with nearly 51 percent of the votes in Liberia, Africa’s oldest republic founded by freed American slaves.
“The results announced tonight, while not yet final, suggest that… Boakai is leading in a way that we cannot overcome,” Weah stated in a late-night speech on national radio last Friday.
He acknowledged, “Our CDC party has lost the election, but Liberia has emerged victorious,” emphasizing the need for grace in defeat. Weah, 57, had previously defeated the 78-year-old Boakai by a significant margin in the 2017 second-round presidential vote.
With over 99.5 percent of polling stations reporting vote tallies following Tuesday’s second-round vote, Boakai secured 50.89 percent of the cast ballots, according to the election commission. Friday’s figures indicated Boakai was ahead by 28,000 votes. In the first round last month, the two candidates were closely matched, with Weah holding a national lead of only 7,126 votes.
Weah’s election, the first by an African footballer to win both FIFA’s World Player of the Year trophy and the Ballon d’Or, had initially raised hopes for change in Liberia, still recovering from consecutive civil wars and the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic. The latest and nearly
However, his government has faced criticism for corruption, and he has been accused of not fulfilling promises to uplift the lives of the poorest.
The United States congratulated “president-elect Boakai on his victory and President Weah for his peaceful acceptance of the results.” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller urged all citizens to follow Weah’s example and accept the election results.